Product Description

User Reviews

Overall Rating:

Value Rating:

Submitted by
Isimokov
a Casual Listener

Date Reviewed: November 14, 2002

Bottom Line:

Don't know where to start. But simply put WOW. This unit is unbelievable. I really don't know the people that gave this unit negative reviews are on. I've had it for almost 2 years now, and there isn't a single thing that comes to mind as a negative. I have the receiver hooked up to the Bose AM10II speakers as well as a Teac 5 Disc CD and a Panasonic DVD. Both devices are connected with the Fiber Optic cable. The sound is excellent. Better then anything I heard comming from a Technics, Sony, Kenwood, or a Pioneer receiver. I would put it at par with my friend's Yamaha (which was twice the cost, and not nearly as powerfull).

After looking around at all the popular brands such as Onkyo, Yamaha, Marantz, etc. this reciever caught my eye. At the time I was using a Technics receiver which I was not inpressed with. There seemed to be a lot of distortion and I was never satisfied.
Then one day at costco, I spotted the Teac AG-D9320. I knew the product name but hadn't heard anything from the company for a while. Well the price was right and that pushed me over the edge, I bought it.
Once home I immediately pulled it out of the box and began setting it up. It connection pannel on the back was impressive and was an easy set-up for all of my components.
Once set up and I turned it on, my first test was music CDs. I was impressed by the imaging that came out of my Paradign Monitor 7s. The next step was to test my DVD player which I hooked up through the Coax connection. Once again I was quite impressed, crystal clear sound! Dolby Digatal and DTS surround was amazing! It made me think of the possibilities when I upgrade my speakers! Finally I cranked it up and found that the sound produced was clear and did not hurt my ears, in other words there was no distortion!

A friend of mine spent $1000 on his Integra reciever, and granted, it has some features that mine does not such as 6.1 surround and software upgrading, etc. However, when it came to music and dvd playback, He was scatching his head because the sound quality of my Teac was on par with his system, which cost considerably more.
The other exciting thing about this receiver is that it has pre-outs so that you can power your speakers with separate power amps, something that I only dreamed about before!

While shopping at Costco, I noticed the Teac 9320 in the Audio/Video department. I never really thought of looking at buying anything major electronics at Costco just because they never really get the "good stuff" there, However, I was quite curious to look at the Teac that was on display. I was already shopping for a Dolby Digital/DTS receiver for some time and had looked at all the usual suspects in the $1000.00 Canadian price range so when I saw the $399.99 price tag on the item at Costco, I had to look.

At first glance, the unit seemed a little on the plastic side and looked far too cluttered with buttons. I then picked it up and although I wasn't blown away by the weight, it was a bit heavier than I expected...a good sign. I then turned it around and looked at the connections. Holy cow. This thing had it all. Ins for all devices, 100 watts/channel, S-video switching, banana plugs for all speakers, pre-outs for all channels, 5.1 inputs, and even component video switching. As I stood there bewildered, I had to double check the price on the sign. I haven't been able to find all these features on one unit from anyone unless I spent at least $1000.00 can! Yep, the sign was right and I decided to take advantage of Costco's liberal return policy and bought the thing.

Once I got home with it, I set it up and fired in a movie on my Panasonic cv-51. First impression: remote really sucks. You can't control anything but Teac product. Big thumbs down for that. Second, both dolby digital and DTS seemed ok but didn't really have my heart pumping no matter how much I tinkered with the settings. I watched T2 on DTS, Saving Private Ryan on DTS, and Crouching Tiger in Dolby Digital. All these movies should be able to move me but I felt a little ho-hum. The real truth came out when I played music with the receiver. Simply, the response was flat. It really does not drive the speakers without distorting all over the place. At low volumes there is a notable hiss. At high volumes a shrill. In between there was no depth to the vocals, nor was there any detail. The instruments always sounded tinny and flat. The receiver was also very raucous when I ran it using Pro-logic.

I then decided on the receiver that I wanted and told myself, maybe it was me being too picky. Let me run my newly purchased Pioneer 709s right beside the Teac. I wasn't being picky. There was such a big difference in mere quality of sound, detail of the mids and highs, and the general ability to drive the speakers without distortion that I unfortunately had to part with the Teac. Too bad...it was and is a good deal for a person who may be not as picky as I am, but after sampling all the other gear out there, I knew it had to go back.

This unit is fantastic. What a difference from Doly Pro Logic. Also, it's bottom end is great and there is lots of room for expansion especially in the sub $500 range. It's reasonably easy to hookup though, getting use to the controls and DTS is a bit tricky but a snap once you set it all up. All around a fantastic unit and COSCO's return policy if anything goes wrong, you just can't compete with. For the person that wants fantastic sound and still have money left over to buy DVD's; this unit is for you. The only unit that is reasonably close is the JVC-8000VBK however, it has more distortion in Surround sound mode.

I think this receiver is one of the best values out there and it performs extremely well with lots of inputs/outputs.Value wise, you won't get a receiver at this price with the same amount of features. What sets this unit apart from other receivers in its price range and even others costing twice as much is that it delivers 130 watts per channel in stereo continuously, 100 watts continuously in 5 channels, component video switching, pre-outs for all channels including sub, 6-ch direct input, dd and dts decoders, and lots of other little bells and whistles that you can read all about on the teac website. Sound wise, this piece of equipment is impressive, especially when watching movies. VHS or DVD sounds excellent. Make sure you have a subwoofer, otherwise you may be missing out on lots of bass with the movies. Music wise, the receiver does well also, but not as good as when watching movies. Like I stated above. This thing can pump out 130 watts RMS in stereo mode. You can't find too many receivers that can do that without giving away your life's savings. It can play lound music and still sound crisp and clear, but if you are like me, than 130 watts might not be enough. I have hooked up a carver tfm-35x amplifier to power my two main front speakers and it sounds pretty much the same as it does without it except for music at high volumes and that's when that extra power comes in to play and you can go that extra mile. However, I would be just as happy without the extra amplifier if I didn't have that super high volume urge every now and then. Overall music sound is also excellent, but not as impressive as the surround sound.Construction wise, something you should know before buying this unit is that the face plate is made of plastic, but not too cheap looking. Small problem when you consider the big picture. Also, it runs a little hot,especially at high volumes. If you run a seperate amp for your front mains than this problem can be somewhat lessened. Overall though, the construction quality is adequate as long as you don't plan on abusing it. Once again, Teac has made another great piece of electronics equipment. Teac products should get more credit than people give.